The long-legged myotis is a hardy, high-country bat that leaves only a faint trail in the records. Open occurrence databases hold 275 records for it in Arizona, and just 6 are iNaturalist photos, a reminder that fast, high-flying bats are documented far more by surveys and detectors than by cameras.
A flier of the mountain forests
Long, dense fur and a strong, direct flight suit this bat to cool conifer forest at elevation, where it chases moths well above the ground and roosts in tree hollows, under bark, in rock cracks, and in buildings. Its Arizona records track that montane habitat, gathering in the wooded high country of Cochise, Coconino, and Mohave counties rather than the hot desert floor. It ranks among the more cold-tolerant western bats and stays active later into the season than many.
The seasonal signal
Records concentrate in the warmer months and thin toward winter, when the bat retreats into hibernation and torpor at sheltered sites. That gap is dormancy, not real absence. NatureServe ranks it S3, vulnerable, in the state, a figure shaped by sparse survey coverage of remote forest as much as by any measured decline.
Common questions
How is it separated from other myotis? Mostly in the hand: long legs and feet, long fur, and a keeled calcar set it apart from Arizona’s other small brown bats, which is a large part of why survey captures dominate its record.
Full species profile
